The Jewish Vote

Obviously there are a lot of interesting storylines to write about coming out of this historic election. I intend to write about many of them, but I want to start with a pet peeve of mine.

I'm going to quote myself at length, if you'll permit me. A post I wrote back in February:

Tonight, during the Democratic debate, Tim Russert asked Senator Obama how he felt about having the support of Louis Farrakhan. Apparently, over the weekend Minister Farrakhan decided to publicly endorse Senator Obama for President. Russert's question about it during the debate is sure to spark another round of my least favorite stale election year debate: "Is this the year the Jews vote Republican?"

Yes folks, every four years we have to go through these motions. Some high profile Jewish Republican comes out and makes some case about how this year, the GOP is going to make strong in-roads in the Jewish community. So, let's take a little peeksy, shall we, at the numbers and see if those prognostications have ever been right.

In 1992, Bill Clinton received 80% of the Jewish vote.

In 1996, Bill Clinton received 78% of the Jewish vote.

In 2000, Al Gore received 79% of the Jewish vote.

In 2004, John Kerry received 74% of the Jewish vote.

Strong in-roads, indeed. A whopping 6% change from 1992 to 2004. Just for comparison's sake, during that same time, the GOP share of the evangelical vote went from 61% in 1992 to 78% in 2004. Now that's some in-roading.

The simple fact of the matter is that Jews in America vote for Democrats overwhelmingly. Sure, the Republican candidate can hope to capture 25% of the Jewish vote, but at the end of the day, the other three quarters are voting for the Democratic nominee. There has been a truckload written about why Jews, despite the relative affluence of the American Jewish community in general, continue to vote reliably Democratic and I'm not going to add anything to that discussion here. Suffice it to say that, despite any nasty e-mails floating about claiming Obama was secretly born in Ramallah and has nightly seances with the ghost of Yasser Arafat, Jews in 2008 will again vote 3 to 1 for the Democrat.

Last night, Barack Obama won 78% of the Jewish vote. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, a guy who's middle name is Hussein and who was the target of a seriously nasty whisper campaign directed specifically at Jews, nevertheless won a larger share of Jewish voters than did John Kerry. I made a variety of predictions over the course of this election campaign, and many were off base, but I did have my moments, and this was one of them.

Can we all make a promise that the next time we hear some talking head or lazy journalist suggest that "this is the year that Republicans win over the Jews," we will change the channel and/or tear up the article?

Yes, we can.